The Crispy Beef Tacos Half-Baked Harvest’s Tieghan Gerard Makes Once a Week

Tieghan Gerard’s Half-Baked Harvest blog is a little internet haven for the home cook. Just take a scroll through her Instagram page and you’ll see plate after plate of stunning dishes that’ll make your mouth water.

Although Gerard cooks with all the seasons, she's the indisputable queen of fall flavors, incorporating warmth and coziness in almost every recipe she concocts. We’ve been long-time fans of Gerard’s simple style and impressive, yet approachable dinner fixes, so we were thrilled to get the chance to talk to her about some of her favorite creations and the keys to her comfort food. 

“When people think of me, they honestly think of fall and fall recipes," she shared. But, even some of her autumn-inspired dishes can span all seasons.

In fact, there’s one recipe she returns to almost every week of the year. It’s meaty, cheesy, crispy, and spicy, and her go-to when she doesn't want to think about what to make.

“That Chipotle Beef Taco is really my fall-back I make all the time,“ she told us.

Inspired by birria, a traditional Mexican stew, her Crispy Braised Chipotle Beef Tacos feature tender shredded beef slow-cooked in adobo for an intensely savory flavor. They’re “oven-fried” for maximum texture and get a crisp, lacey edge of fried Monterey Jack cheese as it spills out of the taco shell. In her words, they're "SO DELICIOUS."

“I make those once a week so those are definitely a go-to,” she shared. “There’s a little bit of heat, there’s a little bit of coziness, there’s a little bit of cheese—those are kind of definitely all the things that I’m about when it comes to creating recipes.”

The beef is layered with warm spices from cloves to cumin, giving it a cozy flavor perfect for the coming months. However, that depth of flavor does take some time to prepare—we’re talking three to four hours in the oven or slow cooker. This is a ‘start today, eat tomorrow’ kind of dish, but it’s worth all the effort.

But, if you're reading this thinking, "three and a half hours for a weeknight dinner?!" we hear you. Not everybody has Gerard's patience for creating a so-called "simple dinner." So, if that's too much fuss for your Taco Tuesday, we understand. Luckily, there's now a way you can get these crispy beef tacos on your table with hardly any work on your end.

The Half Baked Harvest just teaming up with meal kit brand Home Chef to bring Gerard’s delicious meals right to your doorstep. The dishes in the meal kits were inspired by Gerard’s favorite and most popular recipes, and these crowd-pleasing beef tacos are on the menu.

“I really, truly love all of these recipes,” said Gerard. “You just can’t go wrong with a taco. The beef taco is a tried-and-true favorite.”

The other meals in the line-up include some of her other best-known dishes, including One-Sheet Pesto Chicken and lemon butter potatoes, Creamy Whole Bean Lemon Orzo Soup with Parmesan and pesto, and Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Pizza with melty fontina cheese and sweet honey. With Gerard as the head chef, you know they're all going to be good.

So, what else will the comfort food creator be cooking up this fall besides her weekly tacos? Something to satisfy her sweet tooth.

"Anything apple. My baked apple cider doughnuts—I make those every single fall. I love them so much." We'll just add those to the list of the other recipes we can't wait to make this September.